Seville, Spain (CNN) — Amsterdam has long been hailed as Europe capital of cycling, but now there's a new kid riding on the block: Seville.

Until recently, this southern city in Spain has been an unlikely contender for the crown.

Jump back 10 years and barely anyone there owned a bike, let alone rode it. Now, it's a different story. The compact city is ringed by green-painted cycleways.

Its central boulevards have been closed to all but cycle, tram and taxi traffic. And a citywide cycle hire scheme offers 2,600 bikes from 260 docking stations.

Up to 70,000 bikes are now used daily in the city -- not a huge figure, admittedly, but a giant leap from the 6,000 of a few years ago.

So is it premature to proclaim Seville's two-wheeled triumph over Amsterdam, where 800,000 people make daily use of their cycles?

Let's look at the evidence and see what it may mean when you travel here:

The bike paths

Seville's cycle paths are clearly marked and segregated from other traffic.

Barry Neild/CNN

Go for the numbers here and Seville's off to a bad start.

It's got just 160 kilometers (100 miles) of cycle lanes compared with Amsterdam's 500 kilometers. Then again, Amsterdam's a sprawling capital city that covers an area one-third bigger than Seville.

The numbers don't take into account Seville's maze of narrow alleyways in the heart of the ancient city that cyclists can scoot down largely unbothered by cars too wide to follow them.

And, as we mentioned before (and will keep mentioning), Seville's new to this game. The fact that it's created so many cycleways in such a short time is pretty amazing.

The lanes themselves are a match for their Dutch counterparts. They're partitioned from traffic by fence posts and curbs and coated in a smooth green surface. There's traffic lighting and clear signage.

With no political consensus on cycling, Seville's infrastructure is already crying out for more funding.

But with plans afoot to link the city to a wider network of cycle routes across Andalusia and a substantial network of cycle lanes now hardwired into the road system, it's hard to imagine Seville backpedaling.

Result: Amsterdam's ahead by a few bike lengths, but with the sun shining and a fair wind behind, Seville could one day ride into a clear lead.